Thursday 30 July 2009 06.50 EDT
First published on Thursday 30 July 2009 06.50 EDT

Channel 4 and Endemol, the producers of Big Brother, are facing renewed questions about contestants' mental health after a recently evicted participant was taken to hospital after apparently self-harming while watching the programme.

Sree Dasari, 25, was admitted to hospital in the early hours of Friday after cutting his wrists in his room at the University of Hertfordshire, where he is an overseas student. Reports suggested he had become upset while watching the programme from which he was evicted on 3 July, the fourth contestant to be voted out of the current series. He was treated for minor lacerations at the QEII hospital in Welwyn Garden City and discharged shortly afterwards.

A spokesman for Channel 4 said it had made a psychologist available over the weekend to the Indian contestant, who was booed on his exit from the Big Brother house.

He had not been popular with viewers and had been mocked after falling for a fellow housemate, Noirin Kelly, who spurned his advances. Another contestant, Markus Akin, received an official warning after making fun of his thick Indian accent, an incident which prompted more than 100 complaints to Ofcom.

Dasari told his local paper yesterday: "I'm fine. I'm very, very fine and very happy. It was nothing, it's just a small cut."

He was well enough to attend filming of the spin-off show, Big Brother's Big Mouth, on Friday night.

In a statement, Channel 4 said that housemates' welfare was of "paramount importance". "As well as being assessed by both a psychologist and psychiatrist prior to being accepted as a housemate, all potential housemates are given detailed and realistic information about what they can expect from their time in the house and upon leaving it, including all the negatives, in a series of interviews with senior producers.

"This is a thorough and well-established system and there is also an extensive aftercare system in place for all housemates. Sree continues to be given ongoing support by the production team and regular access to the show psychologist."

But Dr Andrew McCulloch, a psychologist and chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: "We have had concerns about this programme for a number of years and have written to Channel 4 about it in the past. Channel 4 have never been able to explain what the safety procedures are, in terms of screening people and then the support available to them through the show and after eviction, and in the absence of that information we remain concerned."

The incident is the latest in a number which have raised repeated questions about the welfare of contestants on the programme, currently in its 10th series in the UK.

The programme was criticised by the British Psychological Society (BPS) in 2006, after that series's lineup included a man with Tourette's syndrome and another contestant who admitted to having an eating disorder.

The BPS said it had met the programme's producers to discuss the inclusion of "vulnerable people" but that "it didn't appear that some of the areas we discussed were necessarily being applied".

Another contestant, Shahbaz Choudhary, left the programme early in that series after threatening to kill himself on air.

The programme was heavily censured in 2007 by Ofcom for breaching its own code of conduct and making "serious editorial misjudgments" after the Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty was racially bullied by fellow contestants, including Jade Goody, who has since died.

Last summer's series received nearly 5,000 complaints about bullying and voting problems, most of which were dismissed by the regulator.

Sue Gardner, president of the BPS, said: "We are aware of the debate surrounding the ethics of reality television and the potential impact on the psychological wellbeing of people who take part, some of whom may be chosen for their potential entertainment value."

The programme presented a dilemma for psychologists, she said, over whether to avoid controversy or to "take part and hopefully protect participants".